Chapter 73 – Shield of the Broken Army

This chapter was sponsored by Zachary Tanmizi, Fnu Mahendran Siddharth, Rick Nelson, Felix Alexy and William Wang. Thanks!

TL: 1 out of 1 Chap Zhan Long today and probs a chap of BTTH tmrw! Tired, sorry about the promise before, I’ll make it up tomorrow.

I held the necklace in my hand; its end was shaped like a battle axe. The necklace had a blood-red glow and its killing intent saturated the air. At the same time, scorching energy seeped into my palm. Mm, this necklace wasn’t a bad item or else it wouldn’t have such a dense feeling!

I waved my hand and the stats of the necklace appeared in front of me. Indeed they didn’t disappoint——

【Necklace of the Broken Army】（Gold-Tier Equipment）

Strength: +27

Endurance: +25

Additional: Increases defense by 70 points

Level Requirement: 38

……

Holding this Necklace of the Broken Army I stared at it blankly for 10 seconds. Finally, I remembered to breathe. 27 strength and 25 endurance, these were all stats that a swordsman needed! Those 70 points of defense were also very valuable. It could raise my defense to a whole new level! More importantly, 70 points of defense would take at least 60 points in toughness (defense) to reach that. So the real value in this necklace was much more than the 27 strength and 25 endurance!

With a pop, the necklace appeared on my neck and replaced the original Necklace of Bravery. The equipment that the General Family “gifted” me had reached its end…

【Xiao Yao Zi Zai】 (Scavenger of Dragon City)

Level: 38

Attack: 639-852

Defense: 675

Health: 1356

Mana: 470

Charm: 29

……

The original necklace increased maximum HP by 50 points, but the new Necklace of the Broken Army added 25 endurance, which meant that my maximum Health increased by 200 points, so obviously it was way superior. In addition to those 70 points of defense, my tenacity had increased significantly! With my 675 points of defense I could match the average monks and knights.

Why? First of all my defense equipment was fairly good. My Elite Steel Wrist Guards and Silver Locked Battle Boots were both Silver-rank equipment and Dawn’s Chest Plate was a Gold-rank equipment. With this Necklace of the Broken Army, all my defensive equipment were quite high class. With my strong attack and healing skills, my entire combat ability was at least in the top 10 in Ba Huang City. Of course, if you added battle tactics, control, etc., I might not reach the top 100. I was very clear about that. I was fairly new to these VR games and if I met anyone on the leaderboard, killing any of them would take quite a bit of work.

I continued going through my loot. Besides the necklace, the dark prince also dropped a shield for me. I struggled to raise the huge black shield. With a shake of my arms the stats appeared in front of my eyes. Damn, nice!

【Shield of the Broken Army】 (Gold-rank Equipment)

Defense: 170

Strength: +25

Endurance: +20

Additional: Increases defense by 0.9%

Level Requirement: 38

……

The moment I laid my eyes on the stats of this shield, I froze. 170 points of defense! Damn, who in this world could take more hits than knights or monks? Out of the 9 main classes, only monks and knights could equip this shield and the defenses on a shield were way more than chest plates’ of the same level! By this alone, the meat tank positions of the two classes were untouchable.

I put away the shield and said no more. Time to get rich. None of my close friends needed this shield, so I should sell it. A Gold-rank shield would undoubtedly fetch a high price!

I continued and gathered up the gold coins on the ground before finally looking at that faint purple gem. I picked it up and went silent——

【Soul Gem】: Strengthens weapons or defensive equipment to improve the quality of the equipment!

……

Soul Gem?!

I picked up this purple rock and thought for a while. Then I opened the strengthening window and decided to put my sword in it along with the warm Soul Gem. Indeed, the percentage of strengthening appeared ——90%!

Whatever, I would strengthen it first and then figure it out later. I didn’t have any good defensive equipment to strengthen anyways!

After pressing “Yes” and with a ding…

System Notification: Congratulations! Your item [Jade City Sword] has been strengthened! Also, since you are the first player to successfully strengthen an equipment, charm +2!

……

Good, I had 31 points of charm now, but that was not the important part. What did my sword look like after it had been strengthened?!

I quickly opened up my bag and held the sword. I re-equiped it and scanned over it. The stats really did change——

【Jade City Sword +1】（Gold-rank Equipment）

Attack: 210-300（+21-30）

……

Hehe, looking at the stats with +1, it raised 10% of the attack damage?!

Looking at the stats, it really did add 21-30 attack damage. Hehe, looking at the effects of strengthening, soul gems seemed pretty good. But I was the first player to strengthen an equipment, so perhaps it was a waste to use it on my sword…

Whatever, I would return first and hand in the mission!

I said my goodbyes to the two NPCs and sadly I didn’t have any method of communication or else I would leave my Skype or something with them. The two were almost in tears while watching me leave and seemed to not want to separate. I almost felt like they wanted to say something like, “I’m afraid that we won’t be able to meet again. So I have no other request, but only beg that I can sleep with you for one night, so I can understand and ease your pain and suffering…”

Seeing as those two almost wanted to cry I quickly took my sword and left. In the desolate basin, I had the prince’s head in one hand. This was proof of my work!

I rushed straight to the Dragon City and found Beast Tamer Dalin carving away at a huge log with a small knife to create a fence to block out deer. This really moved my heart because on one side he needed to hunt and collect food for the winter and on the other side he needed to collect manure. Even the defense work for Dragon City was done by him!

I walked up to him and said, “Instructor, you work way too hard. Let other people do these small tasks…”

“Other people?”

He sneered at me, patted my shoulders, and said, “Boy, you don’t understand. Although there are plenty of talented people in Dragon City, there aren’t many useful ones. There are 100 soldiers, 200 servants, and adding up the supply teams, there are less than 1000 people stationed in Dragon City! If I don’t do these tasks then I’m afraid no one else would.”

I nodded and took out the bounty post, “Instructor, I already finished the mission and defeated the Dark Dwarves. Also, I brought you this…”

With a bang, the head of the prince rolled to Dalin’s feet. Dalin seemed like he got electrocuted and looked at me with a shocked expression, “This…This is the Dark Dwarves’ highness…Ming Jie! Gods! What have you done boy? You killed Ming Jie?!”

“Mm, is there a problem?”

“No, nothing. Perhaps this is better. Maybe killing Ming Jie is a good thing. It’ll allow the Dark Dwarves to continue hiding in some faraway place and not invade our borders. Or maybe it’s a bad thing…Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Boy, you completed a near impossible mission. Come, this fame and rewards belong to you…”

“Ding!”

System Notification: Congratulations! You finished an A-rank mission【Hunting Dark Dwarves】, and receive 50000 experience points, 100 gold coins, and 3 charm. Your fame in Dragon City has also increased. Also you receive reward item 【Ice Fire Cloak】!

With a ding, I leveled up to 39!

……

My luck was pretty good and I got an equipment reward! I immediately opened my bag and saw the cloak lying in the corner of the bag. It had an icy color on one side and a fiery color on the other.

【Ice Fire Cloak】 (Gold-rank Equipment)

Defense: 150

Strength: +28

Endurance: +24

Additional: Increases defense by 50 points

Level Requirement: 39

……

Looking at the stats I almost fainted. This was godly! This was absolutely godly! As a cloak, it brought 150 points of defense to the table! Not only that, it still increased defense by another 50 points and even added an extra 52 points of strength and endurance!

Without hesitation, I took out the cloak and immediately wore it. Instantly I felt both warm and cold but it felt really nice as they seeped into my body. My defense increased explosively once again——

【Xiao Yao Zi Zai】 (Scavenger of Dragon City)

Level: 39

Attack: 689-916

Defense: 845

Health: 1558

Mana: 480

Charm: 34

……

My attack, defense, and Health were all insanely strong. I was absolutely sure that my stats had at least surpassed Yan Zhao and maybe it even reached Feng Han’s level. Of course I was just talking about stats. Let’s not talk about the other things…

Looking at these stats happily, I looked at the Necklace of Bravery and the Shield of the Broken Army in my bag. I think it was time to return to Ba Huang City. I would sell these two equipment and convert them into gold coins. Then I would convert the gold coins into cash. In the early stages of the game, if I could earn money then I would earn them!

I took out a city return scroll and used it.

Whoosh!

I appeared in the northern entrance of Ba Huang City because my city return scroll was bought from the stores in the northern plaza.

I immediately set up shop at the first available space I found. I put Shield of the Broken Army and Necklace of Bravery up and yelled at the top of my lungs, “Selling high-class equipment!! Level 38 Gold-ranked shield, 170 points of defense and adds strength on top of that. Don’t miss out on this sale! There’s also a necklace that adds 20 strength. Anyone who wants it, come and give me a price!”

Good items didn’t have a bad market! Quickly, my stall was filled with players. The Necklace of Bravery sold for 11 gold coins. That item was already past its prime and there weren’t a lot of players who were willing to buy that. But the stats on the Shield of the Broken Army were incredible and under the short amount of time since I set up shop, no one gave me a fair price that I wanted.

After a good 10 minutes, finally an extremely well equipped player stepped into my view. I knew him! Guild master of [Vanguard]——Jian Feng Han!

“Xiao Yao Zi Zai?!”

Feng Han saw my ID and my golden leader-board crest on my shoulder. He frowned, “I never would have thought that you would be the one selling the #1 shield in Ba Huang City!”

I smiled, “Are you interested in the shield?”

He nods, “Yep! How much?”

“Give me a price!”

“That’s…”

Behind Feng Han I saw a chain-mail wearing player. ID: Fushen Thousand Blade, level 38 monk. He was holding a Bronze-tier shield and said, “Boss, that’s too wasteful. I don’t need that high-leveled shield…”

Feng Han shook his head and laughed, “Say no more, I’ll buy it!”

After saying that Feng Han looked towards me, “Brother Zi Zai, how about this. I’ll give 500 gold coins for this shield.”

“500 gold?” I frowned, “That’s too little isn’t it?”

“Equipment like that isn’t worth a lot of money…” Feng Han tried to start a psychological war.

I smiled and spread my arms, “We know each other well, so don’t try any tricks. When everyone rises to level 40 and enter high leveled areas on the map this is pretty much essential. Especially if you want to go and kill level 50 Gold-rank and above bosses to get the Guild Creation Tablet. This shield is one of the best to have. Also, if [Vanguard] doesn’t want it, then I’m sure [Flying Dragons] or [Prague] would be very interested in it. I’m sure that you don’t want [Prague] to be first to get the tablet right?”

Fang Han widened his eyes, clenched his fists, and said, “1000 gold coins!”

“Deal!”

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